Today’s post is a continuation of my conversation with the lovely Barbara Agnes. I’m always looking for recommendations on new places to go and (of course) recommendations for shops! Read below and just try to not book a ticket to Paris tout suite.
Me: Where do you like to shop?
Barbara: In Paris, I always like to go to Merci not necessarily for clothes but just for stuff… It’s a very big concept store with three floors and they have everything from interior to stationery to bedding… It’s really nice. It’s not like Colette because Colette is… It’s more fashion and then “certain things.” It’s almost like more of a French concept – like Parisian.
And they have clothes but the clothes are a little bit more earthy. That means like Isabel Marant or something like that. They’re not very flashy and they’re more tonal. They’re more sort of nature – linens and jerseys. A bit like nice sort of t-shirts, casual shoes, but always very stylish.
Me: What parts of Paris do you like to hang out in?
Barbara: I like the 10th. I like the 11th. I also like to come to the 6th because it’s a totally different scene. And I live in the 9th so I like the 9th too. And every area has, like, the little bits. Like the canal is very nice in the 11th or the 10th. It’s very young and it’s very informal, or trendy. It’s a whole different scene.
Then the 6th is nice because you see people that are quite eccentric sometimes. You don’t actually see that many eccentric people, but in the 6th you sort of do.
Then I like my area, the 9th, because they have a great auction house and I like to go there on a regular basis. Or not too much, actually, because I always want to get stuff and they always have daily auctions. Sometimes it’s vintage, sometimes it’s jewelry. Sometimes it’s photography. It’s almost like a museum but you can actually touch stuff.
Me: What is that called?
Barbara: It’s called Richelieu- Drouot. So that’s just my area, what I like to do in my area. Because everybody kind of knows the area quite well. It’s what I like.
I like to go to the Passage. I live next to the Passages where there are lots of different little cafés, book shops.
Me: Is that like covered markets?
Barbara: Exactly. Yeah. But they’re sort of very long almost streets, but they’re covered and you walk in those. I live next to one.
And I like to go there and there are lots of restaurants in there you can go for dinner. So this is what I like to do.
I love to go to Palais-Royal. That’s the 1st. And I know it’s very kind of cliché and all that but I think it’s what I like to do because I can walk from where I live. So I go for a little walk and then I sit there and I get a coffee. I just sort of sit by the fountain and it’s lovely. Then I get some sushi because there’s rue Sainte-Anne and that’s where all the Japanese stores are. I love to go to the Japanese area.
Me: That sounds really nice. I really like the Palais-Royal. I love the art installation with the black and white stripes.
Barbara: Oh, yeah. That’s very nice. In fact, they kind of fixed that because they now have floating water, because it was designed by the artist with water floating at the base. It was emptied and there was no water and people just used to throw in their rubbish. But now they’ve actually brought it back to life.
It’s nice. And then there’s Kitsune, which now has a coffee shop which is a French-Japanese brand. So this is where you can now get a coffee in Palais-Royal. Because before, you couldn’t get a takeaway coffee and now you can get a takeaway coffee and it’s very popular. People go there.
So yeah, I go to Palais-Royal, I go to Kitsune, I get a coffee and I have a sit there on their little terrace or I go and sit by the fountain. It’s a nice place to hang out. So this is definitely my favorite spot for like kind of open air.
Me: Did you just describe your perfect day in Paris?
Barbara: Probably. Yeah. I do that like with my friends. Like I would maybe walk, go to the auction house then maybe go to Palais-Royal, have a coffee with a friend, go have some Japanese afterwards, and then slowly go back. I mean, there are lots of different things you can do in Paris on your favorite days but this is one thing I’d like to do.
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